This invention relates to a magazine for an automatic weapon, particularly a small weapon, such as a submachine gun.
Generally, the magazines may be of the drum type or the box type. It is generally a disadvantage of drum-type magazines that they are bulky, they are difficult to load and they generally cannot be attached or detached with ease. Further, firing from a lying position is uncomfortable due to the particular location of the drum magazine on the weapon. More recently, the box-type magazines have been more frequently used. In this type of magazine the firing comfort has been improved with the lateral arrangement of the magazine. This, however, is disadvantageous because of the significant additional dimension taken up by the weapon. In the known Hill submachine gun, the length dimension of the box-type magazine is parallel to the barrel and the magazine, which is disposable, is arranged above the bolt.
The invention more particularly relates to a box-type magazine whose longitudinal axis is parallel to the barrel.
It is a further general disadvantage of known magazines for automatic weapons that the cartridges are arranged in the magazine in a single series so that a malfunctioning or jamming within the magazine is likely to interrupt altogether the feed of cartridges to the feeding gate of the magazine, thus preventing the weapon from firing.